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CAREY Family History

1) Ó Ciardha, modern spelling Ó Ciara- anglicised Carey, Keary, earlier as (O) Cary, (O) Carie & c. the root is 'ciar' -'dark', 'black'. A sept of the Southern Uí Néill, originally of N.E. Longford (Cairpre Gabra), then 12th century rulers of Cairpre Laigen in modern Co Kildare. They were dispossessed by the Cambro-Normans after the 1170s.

The head of the Uí Néill sept is recorded as 'ua Ciardha, tighearna Coirpre', i.e. O Carey, lord of Carbury, in AD 952/4 (Annals of the 1V Masters). Ó Dubhagáin (d.1372) wrote of 'Ó Ciardha over Cairbre of poets, of the tribes of Nine-hostaged Niall' and Ó hUidhrín (d. 1420) of 'Ó Ciardha of the red-bladed swords'.

O' Donovan wrote (1862): 'O'Ciardha, now anglicised Keary and Carey, a rather numerous name in the counties of Meath and Kildare', and 'the name is common, but to be found only among the lower orders'.

2) Ó Ciaráin/Ó Céirín root 'céir/ciar' -'dark', 'black', anglicised Kearan(e), Kearin(e), Kerin(e) &c, and Carey. Ó Ciaráin was the name of septs in SE Cork and Donegal. Ó Céirín were chiefs in Costelloe Barony, Mayo, recorded in the Annals as Ua Ceirin (1155). There was a Cormac Cary (sic.) recorded in Mayo as early as the 1641 Depositions. Keern/Carey are recorded synonyms in the registers of Ballymena Union in Co Antrim (Matheson, 1901).

3) Ó Cearáin, was anglicised Kirrane/Kerrane and Carey in the 19th century.It is perhaps 'an older form of Ó Céirín' (P. Woulfe, 'Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall', 1923). R. E. Matheson ('Varieties & Synonyms of Surnames...in Ireland', 1901) records synonymous usage of Kirrane & Carey in the late 19th century in Ballindine, west Mayo. Former Governor of New York, Hugh Carey's ancestor is alleged to be Michael Kirrane, a Mayo man.

4) Ó Ciarmhacháin, Ó Ciarúcáin, Ó Ceiriúcháin & c. - anglicised Carey, Irwin, Irvine, Kerwick & c.; a name with many spellings (see UCD's National Folklore website at dúchas.ie), a surname found in West Cork and other parts of Munster. The Ó Ciarmhaic family were rulers of the Eóganacht Aine in S.E. Limerick before the Norman invasion.

7) Mac Fhearadhaigh - anglicised McCarry, McCarey, earlier MacKeary. A name of Oriel. In the 1850s (Griffiths op.cit.) there are a few families of McCarey in Monaghan, Donegal and Antrim.

8) Ó Carráin/Ó Corráin - anglicised early as Carrane, Carrone, Curran(e), Carew, and Carey. The sept held lands round Mobernan, near Fethard in South Tipperary. Donald O Carrane of Mobernayne, 1586 is mentioned in the 'Fiants'; Conor Carew of Mobarnan was a representative at the Catholic Confederation of Kilkenny, 1642. The Court of Claims, 15th July 1663, has a request for return of Mobernan lands in Tipperary forfeited by 'Teige Carrue alias O Carron'. Brothers, priest Thomas Carue (d. 1672) and royalist soldier Sir Ross Carey (as on Westminster Abbey inscription to his wife Lady Hyde, 1660) are of this family. Woulfe & others have fallen into the error of treating Tipperary Carew at 'face value' as 'Norman'. The Cambro-Norman Carews had died out in Tipperary by the end of the 15th c.. (see Paul MacCotter, 'Irish Roots' magazine, 1997). Norman families in the 17th c. wouldn't use Gaelic forenames like 'Teige', 'Conor' etc

There are many 'Carrane' in the 1659 Census in south and mid Tipperary, 22 families (Iffa and Offa barony), 34 (Middlethird). In the 1664 Hearth Money Rolls: Teige O' Carrane, Laughlin Carrane, Patrick Carine & c.

Paul MacCotter has claimed in 'Irish Roots' (1997) that the rare East Cork Norman-Welsh surname Carew survived there under the form 'Carey'. However, the East Cork Carews of Garryvoe appear to have died out in the male line in the 1660s (Brit. Mus. Funeral Certificate MS 4820; v. Carew page); Carey in this area is regarded as an Anglicisation of Ó Ciaráin by Dr E MacLysaght,( 'Irish Families', 1985).

The Registrar General's 'Special Report...' (1894) based on births in Ireland for 1890, shows highest occurrences of Carey in Cos Cork, Dublin, Tipperary, Mayo and Kerry.

O' Hart in 'Irish Pedigrees' p 499, (1887) describes the arms for Keary/Carey of Fore, Westmeath as 'azure, a lion passant, guardant, or' with a crest of 'an arm in armour, holding a spear point down, ppr'. The same arms appear under 'O' Carrie/O' Carry' in Burke's 'General Armory', 1884 . The arms at the head of this page appear under 'Carey' in Burke (op. cit.) and for 'Carey' in John Rooney's 'A Genealogical History of Irish Families...' New York (1896), with the difference of 'argent' (silver) instead of 'or' (gold) in the main shield; and in chief (at top) instead of a pelican there is a heron with an eel in the beak.

The arms of an English family of Car(e)y from Devon or Somerset (Burke, 1884) 'argent, on a bend, sable, 3 roses of the first' are often wrongly assigned to Gaelic-Irish Careys by 'heraldic firms', probably because two such landlord families settled in Ireland: a) Cary at Inishowen, Donegal (c. 1600); b) Carey at 'Careysville' near Fermoy, Cork (c.1650) also Clonmel (c.1780). The latter family is definitely extinct. Carey is a common native Irish name in these areas, and especially so in Cork. Even in Donegal, the Inishowen Anglo-Irish family of Cary lived in an area alongside eight native Catholic Carey farming families (see 1901/11 Census). In the 1911 Census for Donegal out of the 20 Carey families listed, 4 were Church of Ireland and 16 Roman Catholic.

British names were used as 'models' in the anglicisations of Gaelic names in the 17th century, e.g.Brady, Boyle, Conway, Kenny, etc. Elizabethan,Sir George Car(e)y of Devon was Elizabeth's Treasurer of Ireland, 1598-1606.

Notable Careys:

Denis Carey (d. 1798) of Old Leighlin, Co Carlow, was hanged for his part in the 1798 Rebellion. On his way to the infamous court at Hackett's Inn, taken over by the Yeoman, his wife cried out to him as he passed in the cart, bound and fettered, 'Make no more widows!' He replied he wouldn't. He kept his silence.

Patrick Carey (1916 -1994) born in London of Irish father. Acclaimed, award winning Irish cinematographer/film-maker: 'Yeats' Country' 1965, 'Oisin' 1970, 'Beara' 1979. He also did the filming in 'Ryan's Daughter'.

CAR(E)Y of British and French Origin. (see Cary page) .

Car(e)y as a British surname was most numerous in Somerset, and probably derives from one of several Cary places on the River Cary there. Devon, where the surname also occurs historically, has a locality so named on the Cornish border. The names are Old European/pre-Celtic and probably mean 'stony/hard' from OEur -'karisa' (Wattts, Cambridge 2003). Examples: Sanson de Cari, Devon, 1198. Philip de Kary, Somerset 1203. (Feet of Fines). Yet another possible origin is Cornish (as in Carey Tor, Bodmin Moor): e.g. Ede Cary, St. Just, 1556 and Eduardus Careye, St. Ewe, 1665, Cornwall.

Irish immigration accounts for perhaps most British bearers. Current British telephone directories show highest numbers of Carey located in areas of Irish immigration: Greater London (320), Greater Manchester & Lancashire (272), Kent (163), West Yorkshire (145) and West Midlands (145).In the 1891 Census, for example, Lancashire had more than twice the number of Careys than Somerset, 746 to 347.

Y-DNA Research on Car(e)y

On the World Famiies' Carey DNA Project website we find that the Irish Careys and most British Car(e)ys (Somerset & c.) belong to the same 'broad' Y-DNA haplogroup ('Celtic'/Neolithic) - R1b1a1a2., which reflects the general DNA picture of western Britain and Ireland (Prof. B. Sykes, 'Blood of the Isles', Oxford).

An extreme western branch of this 'Celtic' haplogroup, known as R-L21, which is borne in the highest numbers by far in Ireland (70%+), but which is also found in lesser numbers in Wales , Western Scotland and the English West Country (45%), itself divides into three further Irish subclades: and Irish Careys are scattered across these three separate subclades (source: familytreedna.com/Genographic project/National Geographic).

The six Irish Carey lineages confirmed are from: Tipperary X2 in 'Southern Irish' Group 2, Limerick/Clare in 'Irish Group 3', and Galway/Donegal in in the 'North-Western Irish' Group.

There are two lineages confirmed from England (still in the broad 'Celtic'/neolithic R1b1a1a2) , from Somerset and Buckinghamshire.

2 0ther lineages are confirmed from ouside the R1b haplogroup: one is in the I haplogroup (Scandinavian/Germanic) and the other is in R1a (Slavic/Baltic/Germanic); the I haplogroup may represent the Norman Careys.

Of the individuals in the R1b1a1a2 haplogroup as yet not in a lineage, there are 6 confirmed from Ireland (origins inc. Tipperary, Kerry, Mayo, Westmeath), and 2 from England (Somerset and Northants). There are also 2 individuals , one in R1a and one in the I haplogroup.

carey

Carey

My direct Carey ancestors, Thomas Carey and his son George Montgomery West Carey, came from Ireland (via Belfast and Gracehill) in 1842 to Canada.

Carey

My direct Carey ancestors, Thomas Carey and his son George Montgomery West Carey, came from Ireland (via Belfast and Gracehill) in 1842 to Canada.

editor101

There are 48 Carey households recorded in Griffith, Primary Valuation, 1850s, in West Clare, mostly in the south-west in the Kilrush area, with a few in Ennistimon, There are also around 70 Kerin households , mostly in Ballyvaghan in North Clare, but a few in Ennistimon. Is there a connection? Kerin is O Ceirin. There are also 6 Keary, mostly Kilrush area.

Johnny

My father Johhny Carey was in the Sarsfield Band, Limerick in the 20s and 30s, also in St. Johns band. He was a drummer and also a piper. The family lived in Watergate, Limerick city. These Careys were originally from Powerstown Park, Clonmel, Tipperary.

editor101

Refuse the anglo settlers Devon Cary arms of three roses on a bend, now widely available with Gaelic derivations of Ciardha etc appended!

editor101

Greetings to all Careys worldwide! Further research on this complex, but fascinating subject may be foud on www.careyirish.com Sln